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| My Journey, Illusions and Discoveries as a Trader |
By then, I thought I had figured it all out when I scored another 133 pips in the first week of June 06. As you might have guessed by now, the very next week, the market taught me yet another lesson. I opened up some EUR, JPY and CHF trades on the 6th of June and refused to accept losses while they were still small. BIG MISTAKE indeed! The market continued moving away from my entry and some 20 days later, I finally closed my trades out for a total loss of 1536 pips from those 4 trades. That resulted in a loss of some 77% of the account equity.
Needless to say, that was my 2nd wakeup call. And mind you, even at this stage, I was never disillusioned. I just chose to pick up from where I left off and carry on stronger than ever (hey, look at Thomas Edison and the rest of the greats…they NEVER GAVE UP).
July came and went. And so did August and September. Something hit me as I realized changes in my psychology and in my mindset. I no longer chase after the boat. I wait for prices to come to my level (most of the time anyway). I don’t get TOO emotional whichever way my trade turns out. These are just some examples.
Today my trading records look much healthier than when I first began. I realize too that trading is a never-ending journey. Along the way, you do realize that your trading has improved as a whole and yet you’re not quite at the finishing point because the truth is, the finishing point does not exist. You just simply keep on going.
All in all, I’ve had some great fun challenging myself on a daily basis and gaining experience over time and the following are things I’ve found out and practise. I hope this inspires and/or benefits you.
And here they are (some might be obvious but not to other traders):
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- Intentionality of trading (I.E Why do we trade? this will be another article altogether)
- Daily hi/lo fib swings
- Market reacts to psychological numbers
- Average daily range of the pairs you're trading (Use ATR for this)
- Put in my stop and take profit per trade during entry
- Great exits are more important than good entries
- Moving my stop to BE+1 as soon as feasible
- Not reading too much into pivots on Mondays
- Early european trends start around 0645GMT
- Reversals of the above (if any) then tend to happen around 0730GMT~0815GMT
- Forex has a volatile nature and you must cater for that
- Not more than 7% drawdown in a month (I use 5% currently)
- Learn to stop trading when I'm ahead (...risk of overtrading)
- Market gives clues ... It usually tells you quickly when you're wrong (it's up to you to listen and obey the signal)
- Do not bet on a reversal ... Bet on the trend to continue instead
- Expect pullbacks only 50% of the time on Friday closes (late U.S session) ... these pullbacks typically produce 24~39 pips
- Breaking the 200EMA (15m) and CPP tends to give very strong reliable pushes
- Study your biggest losses … they give clues/lessons
- When I’m tired, I don’t trade
- When in doubt, please STAY OUT
- Study the longer timeframes over the weekends (Monthly/Weekly 35%, Daily 35%, 4Hr 20%, 1Hr 10%)
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The above list is not exhaustive and more will be added over time. I’ve pretty much come to the end of this article. To be honest, it was pretty tiring compiling this but at the same time knowing that if just 1 trader benefits from reading it, it would be worth it.
Until we meet again, stay healthy and pip-wealthy!
This article is written to show how one trader started and the experiences he had. After reading it, you are encouraged to discuss about the article
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